How late is too late to arrive for embarkation for Navigator of the Seas?

[CableKC]

Does anyone know when the check-in time at the Long Beach Cruise Terminal for the Navigator of the Seas starts on a Monday for a 4 night cruise?

I figure that I can fly in early morning to the Long Beach Airport and somehow get myself to the Cruise Terminal sometime between 11am to 12:30pm.

Of course, this assumes that everything goes well and there are no delays ( knock on wood ).   But worst case scenario, when is the latest that one should try to get themselves to the Cruise Terminal to check in?

I assume that there is some cut off time for when you can't check in anymore?

[AshleyDillo]

90 minutes before the departure time listed in your cruise documents.

[csrsue]

Navigator leaves at 4:00 p.m.  So 90 minutes before then.  I would guess the latest would be about 2:30 or so.  

Are you doing an upcoming Navigator cruise?  My husband and I will be on it this coming Monday, May 2nd.

[CableKC]

I’m trying to plan some summer trip.   I’m considering a cruise as one of my options with my family later in the summer….but trying to decide.  
 

One of those things to consider is how to arrive and all of the planning.   

[twangster]

Flying in the day of a cruise is asking for trouble.  

LA traffic can be brutal at times and airline delays are very common right now due to staff shortages with airlines. 

Prior to the shutdown I tried to fly in to a different port the day of a cruise.  It was direct flight, relatively short.  What could go wrong? 

I missed the cruise when a line of thunderstorms closed the airport for a couple of hours.  No flights in or out.  When they reopened the airport it took hours to get everything moving again.  

[Matt]

 

[LovetoCruise87]

If the ship is pulling away, then you are a tad bit late!

Seriously, I would get in at least a day early just to have a buffer should anything unexpected happen.  

[CruisingNewb]

Long Beach Airport to the Cruise Ship Terminal is no more than a 30 minute drive.  The fastest I have made it was 20 minutes from the Cruise Terminal to the Airport (to drive brother to his flight).

I drive near Long Beach often for court.  The traffic is not that bad.  People tend to equate Los Angeles city traffic to any Los Angeles metropolitan city.  I will say that although I would always err on the side of caution and fly in the day before, flying in that morning, before noon, and getting on the ship should not be a big problem. 

[Diesel]

We used to always arrive a day before embarkation.  In 2018, we had a cruise out of Miami and were scheduled to arrive in Miami the day before embarkation.  We ran into some flight delays and cancellations which caused us to arrive in Miami airport only 4 hours before embarkation!!  We made it to the cruise terminal in time to board, but my wife now schedules us to arrive two days before embarkation!!  An extra day of vacation never hurt anyone, right?

CableCK, if you do decide to arrive a day early, I would recommend arriving at the cruise terminal a couple hours before your check-in time and tour the USS Iowa.  It shares the parking lot with the Navigator so can easily drop your bags at the terminal and walk over the Iowa.  We did this before our April 15 cruise on Navigator.  It was a very neat experience.  You can do a self-guided tour so don't have to worry about when tours begin or end.